How Morality Can Change Through Objective Processes And In Objectively Defensible Ways

January 20, 2011 By 11 Comments

Jason of Lousy Canuck thinks I am quibbling over semantics in complaining about his characterization of morality as essentially “subjective” and he wants me to clarify how my position diverges in substance from his own.  Answering his questions and his formulations may prove a fruitful way to clarify my own positions.  So, here goes.  He [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Authority, Authority, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Religion, Religion, Virtues, Virtues 11 Comments

Mutable Morality, Not Subjective Morality. Moral Pluralism, Not Moral Relativism.

January 18, 2011 By 7 Comments

I hope soon to engage a few of the specifics of a debate going on at our friend George’s blog Misplaced Grace which started when a Christian apologist named Peter tried to argue that atheism has no way of ruling out pedophilia as immoral.  Peter’s first remarks were critical of posts at Jason Thibeault’s blog Lousy Canuck. [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, God, God, Historical Philosophy, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Religion, Religion 7 Comments

The Separability Of Metaethics From Questions Of Theism

January 11, 2011 By 2 Comments

Earlier today, I argued that atheists cannot duck metaethics challenges from theists (or anyone else) and that we should not respond to such challenges with the knee jerk response that we are being bigotedly assumed to be incapable of moral behavior.  I wrote: it is not mere prejudice for theists to demand atheists give an [...]

Filed Under: Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, God, God, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Religion, Religion 2 Comments

James Fallon: Confessions of a Pro-Social Psychopath

January 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Thanks to Dunc, here is a fascinating video of James Fallon, at the World Science Festival: Below the fold is more on the history of the development of the science of psychopathy, including a long segment on Fallon himself, from a much darker toned documentary on the BBC. In the second video below, Fallon explains [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Psychology, Psychology Tagged With: , , , , , Leave a Comment

Being Personally Moral Is Not Enough, Atheists Need A Coherent Metaethics

January 11, 2011 By 6 Comments

Atheists can be as moral as anyone else.  When theists imply that atheism by itself entails that people will either likely or necessarily be less moral, they trade in oblivious, self-satisfied, prejudicial thinking which besmirches atheists unfairly. But it is not mere prejudice for theists to demand atheists give an account of their metaethical positions. [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, God, God, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church 6 Comments

Moral Luck, Sarah Palin, And The “Targeting” Of Gabrielle Giffords

January 10, 2011 By 2 Comments

Contrary to first impressions, it does not seem at this point that Jared Lee Loughner’s shooting of Congresswoman Giffords and nineteen other people was directly inspired by the Tea Party movement or by Sarah Palin. What has dribbled out so far about Loughner’s ideas seems closest to anarchism in ideology and there are amateur diagnoses [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Politics, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin Tagged With: , , , , 2 Comments

TOP Q (7): When, If Ever, Are Intellectual Mistakes Morally Culpable?

January 7, 2011 By 2 Comments

Can we morally blame people for failing to pursue the truth well enough or for employing irrational methods of belief formation?  Is belief something not in our volitional control at all?  Is it an entirely passive thing to “just believe” something?  Or even if we have some volitional control over what we believe, does it [...]

Filed Under: Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Faith, Faith, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy Tagged With: , , , , , 2 Comments

On Defending True Spirituality And Taking The Word Back From Spiritually Bankrupt Fundamentalism

January 6, 2011 By 5 Comments

So Chris Mooney’s article in Playboy about the spirituality of scientists has sparked some interesting debate in the atheist blogosphere. His new post on the subject explicitly interprets his aims and themes in the piece as essentially saying what I interpreted them to be—to defend the idea that you can have completely sufficient spirituality without [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Spinoza, Spinoza Tagged With: , , 5 Comments

TOP Q (6): Why Should Pleasure And Pain Matter Morally?

January 6, 2011 By 7 Comments

I have already begun to explain my own view of the nature and limits of the ethical value of pleasure and pain (and I’d pleased if you considered my views there and, admittedly, a bit pained if you do not bother to!)  But I would like to throw this out as today’s open philosophical question: [...]

Filed Under: Ethics, Ethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, My Theory of Morality's Rational Foundations and Nature, Philosophy, Today's Open Philosophical Question (TOP Q) Tagged With: , , 7 Comments

Against Accommodationism: Religion Has NO Rightful Claim To An Unencroachable “Magisterium” Of Its Own

January 5, 2011 By 1 Comment

Chris Mooney is an accommodationist.  In the conflict between science and faith, he is the sort of atheistic science defender who wants to minimize all appearance (and existence) of conflict between religious and scientific ideas because he thinks that vital public policy on matters like climate change hinges on scientists’ abilities to garner trust, cooperation, [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State 1 Comment